As I've mentioned, I am currently making extra principal payments on our home equity loan. I originally anticipated paying it off by the end of 2009.

I saw last night, though, that the balance is down to $8,419.51. If the second half of the year works out about the same as the first half, at least $7,900 would go toward the loan. And I know how my mind works. Once I get close to being paid off, I'm not going to mess around with little payments. When it is down to a couple thousand, I'll just make one final payment and be done with it. So it looks like the loan will actually be gone by the end of 2008, not 2009!

Our scheduled payment is $218.01/month, so our disposable income will jump by that amount once the loan is gone. Of course, most of that will be directed into additional savings, but some, perhaps up to $50/mo, will likely go toward some new treat. When I paid off one loan, I hired someone to mow the lawn ($54/mo). When I paid off another, we got cable TV (limited basic for $11/mo). I don't really have anything in mind for a portion of this money but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

It is just nice to see that the end is near. Once the HEL is gone, we will have nothing left but our primary mortgage. That's where most of the $218 will go. An extra $150 or so per month toward that will ensure that it is paid off well before retirement.

For the newbies, I'm a family practice physician. I have the opportunity to do various online surveys (and occasionally in person or telephone surveys). These are for physicians only and can be quite long, involved and tedious, though some are fairly simple. They generally pay quite well, though.

For the month of June 2008, I collected payments totaling $760.50, a great month!

I also did surveys that will pay me another $675 in the coming weeks. There is usually a lag of 2-4 weeks between when the survey is done and when I get paid, so it looks like July will be another very good month.

Nope, I didn't take a break on the weekend. In fact, since I was home, I did a lot more.

Saturday is typically our cleaning day around here. I went through the remaining pile of stuff next to my bed. I took the load of recyclables I had accumulated in the computer room down to the bin in the garage. I went back into the basement and did some further work around the same area as the day before.

My daughter was cleaning in her room because a friend was coming over. I helped her go through a stack of old books in her closet, almost all of which went in the garage for a yard sale or donation. I pulled out a couple that will get sold online.

Finally, I got outside and pruned some bushes/weeds filling up 3 trash cans of branches in the process. Decluttering isn't limited to inside the house.

Today, Sunday, I did some more work on the floor in the computer room. There was a bag of kids books that I don't even know how long they've been there. I realized that my cousin had given them to us. They used to be her daughter's and she thought my daughter could use them. I went through the whole bag and all but a couple ended up in that stack from yesterday to sell or give away.

I cleaned up some other stuff in the same area on the computer room floor, enough that I was able to consolidate other stuff and actually expand the usable floor space by a couple of feet which was nice.

I think that is the major stuff, though there were probably a few other little things along the way.

I actually wasn't going to post again about decluttering yet, but since some others are finding it motivating, I'm happy to help out.

Nothing exciting to report from Wednesday. Just sorted through some more papers on the bookcase.

Oh, we did get our new RecycleBank container for our township recycling program. I posted about that not long ago. With the new program, your recyclables get weighed each week and you earn credits that can be redeemed for gift cards and discounts at a bunch of local merchants. Our first pickup isn't until July 3 but I've been saving up our recyclables in anticipation and yesterday after work, I loaded up the new bin, so that counts as decluttering since a bunch of stuff was scattered around in the garage.

Today, after work, I discovered that my wife had done some decluttering of her own. There was a pile of assorted stuff on the floor in our bedroom in front of the cabinet where we keep all our wrapping paper, ribbon, gifts bags and such. She got rid of most of the pile. So I made that area my focus tonight and went through the remaining part of the pile that was mostly my stuff.

I also straightened up all my sheet music by my piano.

How's everyone else doing?

I just transferred the final $330 to DW's Roth. That maxes hers at $5,000 and I maxed mine a few weeks ago with the tax stimulus check, so we are done for 2008!

The "extra" savings for the remainder of the year will go toward prepaying our home equity loan. The balance is about $10,000 and I plan to have it repaid by the end of 2009.

The medical speaking engagement I was supposed to have on 6/18 has been cancelled. The sales rep was in this morning. She said they just got back from their annual meeting and the company is discontinuing those types of programs so she had to cancel my upcoming lecture.

I'm bummed as I would have earned $625 for that presentation.

Recap for the newbies - I'm a physician and get to do various online surveys for doctors only. These are not surveys available to the general public. They pay very well and can sometimes be technically difficult to complete.

After a very slow month in April, my survey income rebounded very nicely in May. I collected a total of $680. And that doesn't include a few dollars in AOL Opinion Place surveys.

More months like May would be very nice.

We met with the caterer for our daughter's Bat Mitzvah last night. Along with finalizing the menu and decorating details, we also had to make a partial payment of $5,300. I knew it was coming. We had the money saved. But I still hate writing checks for big numbers like that.

We're really happy with how the menu planning went. It all sounds delicious and we're looking forward to attending the party. We've been to so many affairs where the food was tolerable at best. We've even been to some where we left the reception and headed straight to a restaurant because we were so hungry. That won't be happening after this affair.

Now if only we could disown some family members and whittle down the guest list by 10 or 20 or 30 people. Oh well. Can't have everything.

I haven't written an entry for a couple of weeks. Nothing particular to report on until now, so here's an update.

I just transferred another $445 to my wife's Roth. Mine got maxed at $5,000 with the money from the tax stimulus. After today's transfer, I need to send in another $1,085 to max hers. I'll do that in the next couple of weeks.

Our daughter's Bat Mitzvah is 4 months away, September 27th. We are meeting with the caterer on Wednesday to go over the menu, table linens, and other details. We will be making an installment payment to him of $5,300 also. That represents approximately 50% of the total bill. At that meeting, I'll get the suggested bar list so that we can start shopping for the alcohol needed. We will be saving hundreds by providing the alcohol ourselves instead of paying them to provide it.

We spent the day in Atlantic City yesterday. The 3 of us plus my mother went down. We had a nice lunch together and then my wife and I went to Caesar's to play for a couple of hours. Also, I had a $25 cash comp to collect. I ended up losing $50 at blackjack which left me down $25 counting the money they gave me for coming in. My wife lost about $46 and got a $5 comp for parking, so $41 for her.

After lunch, we did some shopping at the outlets. We picked up some nice stuff at the Disney outlet on clearance - a couple of Mickey vases $3.99 (one to keep, one for a pollyanna present for our collector's club), an Eeyore wall-hanging $3.50, and a couple of very nice stained-glass hangings $2.50.

I guess that's all for the moment.

A while back, I got an e-mail from the New Hampshire tourism dept. to do an online survey. We vacationed in NH last summer which is how they got my name. I filled out the survey and thought that was the end of things.

A couple of days ago, I get a letter from them inviting me to join the NH Travel Advisory Panel. I would have to complete a series of 4 online surveys over the next year. For each survey, I'll get a gift card from one of several companies of my choice. Plus I'll get an extra $10 for registering for the panel by 5/23. All together, it will be $65 for the 4 surveys and sign-up bonus.

I just registered, which took about 5 seconds, and I'll get $10 for doing that. The first survey is in June, then September, December and March. Pretty simple way to pick up an extra $65. BTW, I chose Amazon for my gift cards.

We got our $1,500 tax stimulus deposit on Friday. I just transferred $1,345 to my Roth. That was how much was needed to max it to $5,000, so I'm done with that account for the year. The remaining $155 went into my wife's Roth. That brought her total to $3,470. Another $1,530 and we'll be set for 2008.

I just transferred $675 to my wife's Roth. That brings our total for 2008 to $6,970. Only $3,030 to go. Our tax stimulus check is due to be direct deposited tomorrow. That is $1,500 and I'll transfer that to the Roths leaving $1,530 to max them for the year.

Now that I'm back and settled from the weekend, I tallied up what the whole deal cost me.

Thursday, I flew to West Palm Beach, FL to attend my aunt's funeral on Friday. Friday night I flew home and drove to Princeton, NJ to attend our good friends' son's Bar Mitzvah on Saturday and Sunday. Of course, the Bar Mitzvah trip was planned but the funeral trip was not.

Not counting gas for the car or any new clothes, we spent about $1,015 in 4 days. $735 was for the funeral and the rest was for the Bar Mitzvah. And I'm not even counting lost income from taking the day off on Friday. If I add in everything, it would be over $1,500.

I'm not complaining at all as I'm very, very glad I was able to be at the funeral and we've been friends with the Bar Mitzvah family since high school (over 25 years now) and wouldn't have missed that affair for anything. It just illustrates how important savings and emergency funds are.

Recap for the newbies - I'm a physician and get to do various online surveys for doctors only. These are not surveys available to the general public. They pay very well and can sometimes be technically difficult to complete.

April was a REALLY slow month for survey income. I collected a total of $165. I don't know why it was so low. To compare, as of yesterday, May 5, I had already collected $195 for May with most of the month still to come. April was a good month for doing surveys. I did ones totaling $615, but there is always a lag between when the survey is done and when the payment gets sent. Some of that came in during April. Most will come in during May.

So an off month for collecting income, but a good month for generating income which should show up this month.

March was kind of slow for medical surveys. I took in $300 for the month which is quite a bit below what I had been averaging. Part of the reason is I only did one of those phone-in surveys that I get the Amazon gift certificates for. I've just been really busy in the office and haven't had time to do them. Maybe April will be better.

As I posted earlier, we ended up getting a tax refund this year when I fully expected to owe a couple thousand dollars. The state refund came in this week. We owe about $900 to federal which will come out on 4/15. The net gain is $1,230.00 so I just transferred that amount to my Roth account. I figure it is $1,230 I didn't expect to have so I'd put it all into savings and help get the Roths maxed out sooner. Now I only need another $1,840 to max mine and $3,000 for my wife's.

This time to my wife's (I alternate between our accounts). Her account is in a bond fund and is one of the few bright spots in our portfolio this year, up over 7%.

Based on my usual investment breakdown, I was actually only due to put $575 in this week. Due to knowing that we don't owe anything for taxes and will be getting $1,200 back, I upped the contribution. I picked $855 because that makes the YTD total an even $2,000.

Between the 2 accounts, I've now put in $3,930 of the $10,000 limit. Next check, or possibly sooner, I'll probably put $1,070 into my Roth to bring it to an even $3,000 YTD for the account and $5,000 overall.

The numbers I posted yesterday were wrong. I had only quickly glanced at the forms from the accountant. I took them out this morning to review them and sign them and saw my error.

We are getting a state refund but we owe on the federal. We're still netting a refund but it is for $1,230, not $3,036.

That's not quite as bad, though it is still $100/month that we've overpaid.

I posted this on the forums but it belongs here, too. We have owed taxes in each of the past few years. That's fine with us as we don't believe in loaning money to the IRS all year. Due to some large capital gains and some extra side income in 2007, I fully expected to owe again. I was expecting to owe in the neighborhood of $2,000 and had set aside money for that purpose.

We went to the accountant on Thursday and got everything back today. Between state and federal, we are getting a refund of $3,036! I'm not sure how - my accountant isn't in today. I'll call him on Monday to see what happened and adjust so it doesn't happen again next year.

So I'm not glad that we overpaid our taxes by that much, but I can't complain about an unexpected $3,000 windfall.

I see so many posts about no-spend days, and I think it is great if you are reforming your shopping and spending habits. It just never occurred to me to post about my own NS days because most days are NS days. I work Monday-Friday and rarely spend money during the week. Yes, I pay household bills and things that I can't avoid, but actually going out somewhere and spending money rarely happens M-F.

I pack my lunch for work, so no spending there. My office is only 8 miles from home so I only get gas about once every 3 weeks unless we use my car a lot on the weekend. I rarely go anywhere in the evening after work - just go home.

My spending days are Saturday and Sunday. That's when we go out, eat out, do our food shopping and other shopping, take day trips, etc. So I probably average 15 no-spend days per month.

Every 2 weeks, I send money to the Roths, alternating between mine and my wife's. This week was my turn. I just sent $680 to my account. That makes $3,075 total for the year out of $10,000, so only $6,925 to go.

February was slightly light on the survey income. Thanks to flu season, the office has been very busy and I didn't have time to do some of the call-in surveys that I do. I did all of the online ones, though, except for those that I didn't qualify for. There were a couple this month on topics that I really no nothing about so I couldn't do those or qualify for them.

Anyway, my total for February was $475 which is still just fine by me. I'm certainly not complaining. I'd be very happy to average that amount monthly.

Yes, I'm serious. Since we had the whole thread about picking up pennies, I think this fits right in. We went to the pet store to buy some stuff for our hermit crab. One item was a new shell. The shelf tag indicated that the shells were $2.49. But the individual bags with the shells were marked $2.79. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have even noticed the discrepancy, but we did. I took the item over to an employee and explained the problem. She walked over to the display and confirmed what I was saying. Then she found the manager who met me at the register and did a price adjustment.

A lot of people (though maybe not those around here) might think we went to a lot of trouble to save 30 cents (plus tax), but I think mindset is the key to financial success. Frugality is a state of mind as much as it is a lifestyle.

I use an accountant to do my taxes. I know some of you feel that's a waste, but it is something that I just don't feel comfortable tackling on my own. Our return is reasonably complex. Also, I do get a significantly discounted rate because my cousin is my accountant and my father and his father started the firm that he and his brother now run.

Anyway, I have an appointment with him for March 13th so I'm kind of in financial limbo right now. I've been letting some surplus money accumulate in the checking account because I know we will owe money but I don't know how much.

Last year, we got a $1,500 state refund but owed $3,000 to federal, so a net payment of $1,500. As usual, our situation changed during the year. My wife left her job in February and didn't work again until June or July when she took a part-time position. So our income was down about $15,000 for 2007 compared to 2006. My self-employment income (surveys and ebay) was up for 2007 as were some investment returns. So I'm waiting to see how it all plays out and what we end up owing.

I've started our 2008 Roth contributions, but until I know how much cash I need to come up with for taxes, I don't want to tie up too much in the Roth. As soon as taxes are settled, I can really start attacking the Roths. I like to have them fully funded by June 30th.

I just sent $570 to my wife's Roth. I send a certain amount of each paycheck to our Roths, alternating between mine and hers with each check. I like to have the Roths fully funded by June 30th each year. Actually, at the rate I'm going, I won't hit that, but I can already see some surplus building in our account so I'll probably make an extra contribution within the next couple of weeks to keep on track for that deadline.

I realized it has been a week since my last post. Not a whole lot has happened financially, though earlier tonight I transferred $1,000 from the money market in one of my Vanguard IRA accounts to purchase more shares of the international fund. I've been gradually doing that and had forgotten the past couple of months. I want to build up my international exposure which is much too low currently.

DW and I are going to Atlantic City tomorrow. DD is going on the youth group ski trip - her first time. She'll be snowboarding, not skiing. Hopefully, she'll let the instructor work with her and take instruction well (not always her best attribute). I'm looking forward to the day as I haven't been to the casino since the day after Thanksgiving. We're also meeting friends for lunch while we're there. They spend most weekends down there.

Our portfolio has recovered a bit from it's low point a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping that the market will stabilize, though I'm still taking advantage of buying opportunities so staying flat isn't such a bad thing.

I'm still doing my doctor surveys - just did one tonight for $100 and got a check for $30 on Thursday from one I did last month.

Haven't done my taxes yet. I've pretty much got all the paperwork together. I just need to tally up my ebay sales for the year. Then I'll give my accountant/cousin a call to make an appointment.

Speaking of ebay, I have continued to list 5 items/week except for the week before and week of the Superbowl. Of my current auctions, 3 have bids and 1 other has 4 watchers so will probably sell. Only one looks like it may go unsold as it has no bids or watchers. They all end tomorrow evening.

I guess that's all for now.

I do most banking online, but for some reason, I have continued making our Roth contributions to Vanguard by mailing in checks with the little deposit slip things that you tear off the bottom of the statement.

It finally occurred to me that I could probably do it online. So I just logged in to my Vanguard account and, sure enough, I was able to make a purchase toward my 2008 Roth by a simple electronic transfer from my bank.

I usually add to our Roths every 2 weeks after depositing my paycheck. Last year, it took 8 deposits to fully fund both accounts. Since the max is higher this year, I figure it will take 10-12 deposits so I will have that many fewer checks to write and mail. Very simple and safer too.

Quick recap - I'm a physician and get frequent invites to do online, telephone or in-person surveys.

For January 2008, I collected $670 in survey income. So I will certainly keep plugging along and doing these surveys. I earned about $5,400 in 2007 this way. At the rate I'm going, 2008 will hopefully be even better.

I post monthly about how much I've made doing medical surveys. Well, I'm not the only one in the house doing surveys. DW is signed up with mysurvey.com and gets many invites, some for quite a few points at a time. A few weeks ago, one survey asked if she would be willing to participate in a telephone interview for a $100 check. Of course, she said yes, though she was a little skeptical if it was legit. They did call and do the interview and the check arrived today! She also redeemed her points about a month ago for a $20 check, so that's $120 she has made so far from them. Not bad at all. Thanks Ima for getting us the info to sign up.

I've always resisted opening new bank accounts just to snag bonuses, but I think I'm going to give it a try. I just got mail from a local bank offering me $50 for opening a no minimum, no fee checking account. I figure I've really got nothing to lose by sticking $100 in their bank for however long I'm required to have it there to claim the $50.

I may even do the ING thing for $25. I don't know how many of those offers I've passed up over the years.

Does anyone else do this?